Top Skills Required to Build a Career in Investment Banking

Careers in the finance field such as investment banking (IB) is rewarding and extremely lucrative but also demands a lot of hard work and efforts.

Also, due to the need for strong emotional and mental connect for such careers, an investment banking firm seeks candidates having specific skill sets and potential. You will find multiple job roles in the finance field and one of the highest-ranking fields is IB.

An investment banker takes account of facilitating transactions between two firms like mergers and acquisitions, or within a firm, or between the market and the firm. Such roles influence a varied set of skills the banker needs to possess.

Below are the top skills for candidates looking to take up a career in investment banking:

Discipline

The IB firm requires individuals who are disciplined and sharp always. Since most of their work requires meeting clients and building good rapport amongst their clients, these individuals need to look their best. Moreover, these individuals represent their organizations thus they need to be on their best behavior.

Communication

Communication skill is one major aspect the individual needs to possess. They must be good both in written and verbal communication. Besides this, they need to be good listeners too. Every client has their way of communicating with people, thus, these individuals must have the capability to adapt to different situations.

Professional

An investment banker needs to behave professionally with all their clients. The way they communicate with investors should catch their interest in the company. They need to be prepared to answer any type of question related to the company.

Acquiring capital

Staying in sync with the current happenings in the market is one integral skill the individual must possess. They need to know every detail and information about the market. They should be able to tell you when would be the best time to sell shares or stocks of the organization ensuring they generate maximum capital.

Building a relationship

Every investment banker needs to know how to build and maintain a relationship with other clients. They must treat each and every client with the utmost respect.

Positive attitude

Every individual working in an investment banking firm needs to possess a positive attitude and muster confidence in every responsibility they take. They need to show the investors that they’re up to date with everything happening within the organization. The way they present and speak also describes the organization they represent.

Work oriented

Most individuals working in investment banks are work-oriented and hardworking. To yield maximum benefit from the job role, the individual needs to be prepared to work long hours or even do overtime. And since most of their work requires meeting clients, they need to be punctual at all times.

Global

We all know that the world is connected globally and the business world is no different. Open-mindedness to work with different cultures expands the capability to work internationally. Not to mention, combining those sets of capability and knowledge is one of the sought-after skills the investment banking firms expect from their candidates.

In Conclusion

An investment banker is said to possess impeccable quantitative skills. And since the nature of the job is fast-paced, the capability to perform a valuation right on the spot while managing other tasks can help the investment banker succeed in their careers.

Some of the world’s top investment banks include names like JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Barclays (BCS), Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Credit Suisse (DHY), Deutsche Bank (DB), and Citigroup (C).

To become a successful investment banker, you need to have the guts to overcome all challenges that come your way.